Note: You are free
to duplicate and circulate the articles in BSB or to use quotations
from our articles. We would, however, appreciate a good word about where
you found your material. It makes us look good! Thanks.

I believe . . .that Dr. Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United
Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, is right when he says that “globalization is
summoning the world’s great faiths to a supreme challenge.” And that supreme
challenge comes in the form of a question: “Can we recognize God’s image in
one who is not in my image?” (The Dignity of Difference, p.17).

What do Baptists,
that small and noisy band of only one segment of only one of the world’s
great religions, bring to the table of interfaith dialogue? Do we
Baptists have anything at all of value to say? I think so, and I believe
that Baptist theologian Charles Kimball said much of it back in 2002 in
his deservedly popular book, When Religion Becomes Evil.

I always thought it
instructive to turn Kimball’s title on its head and to read his book from
the point of view of When Religion Becomes Healthy. For while
Kimball described some “evil” characteristics of religion in his book, he
also inevitably sketched the outline of “good,” “positive,” and “healthy”
religion. In his closing chapter he said, "As we have explored each of the
warning signs of corrupted religion, we have seen how correctives were
always present within each tradition. Our study of the pathological has
helped to elucidate the healthy” (187). I fear this aspect of his book was
overlooked. What does religion look like when it becomes healthy?

1. Kimball said,
“Freedom of religion is a good thing. So is freedom from the
religion others may wish to impose on those who differ” (25). Healthy
religion is religion free from coercion.

2. Kimball said,
“The uncritical mixing of religious, political, military, and economic
realms in the missionary conquests . . . contradicts the cherished
principle of the separation of church and state” (63). Healthy religion
advocates some separation between religion and government.

3. Kimball said,
“. . . blind obedience is a sure sign of corrupt religion. Beware of any
religious movement that seeks to limit the intellectual freedom and
individual integrity of its adherents. When individual believers abdicate
personal responsibility and yield to the authority of a charismatic leader
or become enslaved to particular ideas or teachings, religion can easily
become the framework for violence and destruction” (72). Healthy religion
protects and affirms the conscience of the individual.

4. Kimball said of
Aum Shinrikyo, the religious sect that released deadly nerve gas in
sixteen Tokyo subway stations in 1995, “Aum Shinrikyo provided little room
for independent opinions or debate among adherents” (82). Healthy religion
provides not only for independent opinions but for “debate among
adherents.”

5. Kimball said,
“Dangers abound when people take direction uncritically from religious
authorities” (84). Healthy religion provides for the Priesthood of ALL
Believers.

6. Kimball said,
“The more the power and authority are focused in one or a few people, the
higher the likelihood of abuse” (94). Healthy religion allows each a
voice.

Do you understand
why I once told Charles Kimball that I thought he was unaware of how
Baptist a book he had written?

Humphreys is
Professor of Divinity at the Beeson School of Divinity of Samford
University.

Calvinismis resurgent
in southern Protestant church life today, and many laypeople find it
confusing and distressing, not necessarily in that order. In this session
we’ll define Calvinism, briefly review its history, examine the biblical
claims for and against it, and outline an alternative to it.

The Baptist Soapbox:Invited guests speak up and out on things Baptist
(therefore, the views expressed in this space are not necessarily those of The
Baptist Studies Bulletin, though sometimes they are). Climbing upon the
Soapbox this month is Jim Evans,
pastor of First Baptist Church, Auburn, Alabama, and author of the popular
weekly "Faith Matters" column published in the Birmingham Post-Herald.

"A Gospel Both Personal and Social"

By James L. Evans

A reader of my weekly Birmingham Post-Herald
columnchided me recently for promoting a social gospel. It’s a
complaint I have heard before. Going all the way back to my ordination, one of
the pastors on the council warned me about the dangers of the social gospel.
It was only later that I learned what it meant. The social gospel is the idea
that the church should make social applications of the teaching of Jesus
Christ.

Social-gospelers
have accomplished some amazing things. They helped abolish slavery in the
nineteenth
century. After the Civil War they helped pass child labor laws and were
advocates for the poor before there was a safety net. The social gospel was at
least partly involved the 1960s war on poverty, the anti-war movement during
the Vietnam era, and the civil rights movement.

There has always been
resistance to a social application of the gospel. Evangelicals, even before
they were called that, expressed suspicion about the idea of “social evil.” In
the world of evangelical theology every thing depends on the individual and
his or her personal decision. Salvation for the world depends on the one at a
time salvation of every individual person.

This is one reason
evangelicals actively take on social issues such as drug and alcohol abuse,
pornography, gambling, sexual practices, and abortion. All of these represent
individual behaviors which evangelicals feel enormously empowered to address
and condemn. And they are not entirely wrong in their concerns. What alcohol
abuse, gambling and pornography have done to marriages and families is well
attested.

But their failure to
appreciate how social forces contribute to these issues makes their efforts to
combat them ineffective and in many cases just plain mean. Men and women
trapped in destructive behaviors are not always helped by a just say no
message of condemnation. What does help is to learn that God cares for them
and is at work trying to change the situation that contributes to their
misery.

The way this plays out
in practical terms may sound something like this. Poverty is not the result of
flaws in the economy or unfairness in the market place, the evangelicals tell
us. Poverty exists because individual persons make bad financial decisions.
Obviously there is some truth to this claim, but it does not account for all
poverty. The creation and distribution of wealth, jobs, education, and so
forth are social forces that have the power to create and maintain poverty.

The failure to
understand the social sources of poverty restricts our ability to do anything
about the effects of poverty. Our effort to help the poor gets reduced to mere
acts of charity. And while charity may help in the short run, it cannot break
the forces that create and sustain poverty in the first place. The apostle
Paul understood this. He wrote that our battle is not against flesh and blood,
but rather with powers that lie beyond the reach of individual decision.

Ideally we should be
able to hold both pieces together. Spiritual truth and discipline begin as
individual decisions, but they survive and thrive because of the support of a
believing community. We may see ourselves as lonely pilgrims on a journey of
faith, but if we look around, the traffic is pretty heavy on the road we
travel.

Frightening powers of
hate and greed and prejudice thrive in our society and have an impact on us
greater than our individual efforts to resist them. Only a force of equal or
greater strength will be able to stare these demons down. I believe that such
a force exists in a believing community that is committed to both personal
piety and social justice. Consequently, a promoter of a social gospel I will
remain.

History of the Baptist
World Alliance:
The Baptist World Alliance is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Richard V. Pierard is Stephen Phillips Professor
of History, Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts and Professor of History,
Emeritus, Indiana State University. The author of numerous books and articles,
Dick is the general editor of the upcoming
Baptists Together! 1905-2005: Centennial History of the Baptist World
Alliance. Learned and well traveled, he is an
ecumenical Christian with firm Baptist convictions.

"Concern for the Whole Person: Baptist
World Alliance Relief Work"

By Richard V. Pierard

This is the second essay reflecting on the history of
the Baptist World Alliance, following the theme of “Ecumenism Baptist-style."
Although the BWA had been founded in 1905 to bring Baptists closer together,
World War I put an enormous strain on these relations. Assisting in post-war
reconstruction brought Baptists back together. The Executive Committee, in
October 1919, decided to send a survey team comprised of American (Northern)
Baptist Charles A. Brooks and British Baptist J. H. Rushbrooke to the European
continent to renew contacts with Baptists and determine the needs there.

They reported on July
20, 1920 to the Conference on Post-War Needs that the BWA had organized in
London. Their report shaped BWA relief policy, which included giving material
assistance to needy people, strengthening theological facilities, apportioning
cooperative efforts with local European Baptists among the various foreign
mission boards, and creating a Commissioner for Europe to oversee relief
work. Rushbrooke, a man with wide ecumenical connections and much experience
in peace work, assumed this post, and the relief activities in Europe over the
next few years rejuvenated the BWA and sharpened its international focus.

This social vision was
renewed after World War II. In 1943 the Executive Committee formed a
committee on World Emergency Relief to coordinate Baptist efforts in the
devastated countries and provide guidance to the constituent bodies in
carrying out work. Over the next two years the BWA followed through in
planning and working with denominational and other relief endeavors like
CARE. In 1946 General Secretary Walter O. Lewis was named the BWA’s “special
representative” to deal with Baptists in Europe on relief matters, and two
years later he was reassigned to spend full time on this effort.

Large amounts of money
were channeled to the German Baptists, and a staff person oversaw efforts in
Occupied Germany. The BWA was deeply involved in the resettlement of
Displaced Persons in the US and Canada, and Adolf Klaupiks, a Latvian Baptist
pastor and DP himself, headed the effort under the supervision of the BWA
Relief Committee, whose president was Memphis pastor R. Paul Caudill. When
the DP program ended, the BWA efforts were redirected to refugee work and
direct aid to needy people in various countries. As the sums of money for
relief needs flowing into the BWA office steadily increased, a reorganization
occurred in 1961 and Klaupiks was named Coordinator of Relief.

The
endeavor was brought under more direct control in 1968, when North American
Baptist Frank Woyke was named an associate secretary and world relief was put
under direct administrative supervision. In the 1970s it was made a
“Division” and its head a “Director.” In1981 the program was renamed Baptist
World Aid, and it now receives annually nearly a million dollars in
contributions for relief and development work. The current director is Paul
Montacute from England. Following the recent tsunami disaster, $660,000 in
donations flowed into BWAid and is now being channeled to Baptist efforts in
the stricken areas.

If you miss this one, you will miss hearing three presentations on
preaching by Gardner C. Taylor of
Brooklyn, NY, one of the greatest
preachers of our generation. You will also miss John Claypool, Kirby
Godsey, Kay Wilson Shurden,
Sarah Withers, Hardy Clemons, Jim Evans, Dee
Bratcher and Bill Coates.
Put it on your calendar now!! Registration information coming
soon.

Baptists, the Bible, and the Poor:Charles E. Poole is a Baptist minister with Lifeshare
Community Ministries in Jackson, Mississippi where he delights in
ministering alongside the poor. "Chuck" Poole, a provocative
preacher and servant pastor, served Baptist churches for twenty-five years. Among
the churches he has served are First Baptist Church, Macon, GA, First Baptist
Church, Washington, DC, and Northminster Baptist Church, Jackson, MS.

"Steep Jesus, Not Sweet Jesus"

By Charles E. Poole

In churches that keep faith with the Christian calendar and the common
lectionary, February 6 will be Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday, and the
gospel lesson will be Matthew’s report of the transfiguration of Jesus on the
mountain.

The central moment in that mysterious passage comes when the voice of God
commands from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
(Matthew 17:5) And, with those final three words, the Mount of Transfiguration
becomes one steep hill. “Listen to him.” To listen to Jesus is a
steep, stern, demanding assignment. After all, if the four gospels are to be
trusted, to listen to Jesus is to hear such things as these:

“Do not resist an evildoer.”

“If anyone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other
also.”

“If someone sues you for your coat, give them your
sweater also.”

“Love your enemies, and pray for those who hurt you.”

Still listening? There’s more:

“You cannot serve God and wealth.”

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

“A person’s life does not consist of the abundance of
their possessions.”

“None of you can become my disciples if you do not
give up all your possessions.”

Well, you see what I mean. When the voice from the
cloud says, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him,” all of a sudden
the Mount of Transfiguration gets steep. The one to whom we are to listen is
more “steep Jesus” than “sweet Jesus.” His words don’t fit our ways. Our
ways don’t fit his words. In an odd sense, Jesus, who is our Savior, is also
our problem. He is our problem in the sense that we have to duck, dodge and
dilute his words in order to keep on doing life in ways that work in the real
world.
That’s where
the church comes in. For our purposes here, that is where the Baptist
church comes in. It’s time for Baptist churches to embrace the fact that the
Bible is the church’s book to follow before it is an individual’s book to
obey. Baptist congregations need to make congregational decisions that are
true to the words of Jesus before we challenge individuals to conform their
personal lives to the ways of Jesus. When, for example, it comes to the Bible
and the poor, Baptist congregations should make Christ-centered corporate
decisions about investing their resources in the lives of those who live in
the most desperate circumstances. Then the church can, with integrity, invite
individuals to be content with their homes and cars so that they can use some
of their money to lift the fallen and comfort the struggling and relieve the
poor.
The command
from the cloud atop the mysterious mountain was, “This is my Son. Listen to
him.” Somebody has to go first. It stands to reason that it should be the
church, what with the Bible being the church’s book and Jesus being the
church’s Lord. That way, individual believers can begin to say, “You know,
when it comes to following Jesus, I’m just not there yet. But my church is.
When it comes to things like war and peace and wealth and poverty, I can’t
quite listen to Jesus yet. But, thank God, I belong to a church that can and
does.”

Focus on Collegiate
Ministry: As the moderate Baptist movement
continues to grow and expand, emphasis on collegiate ministry is slowly taking
shape at a time when traditional Baptist Student Union / Baptist Campus
Ministry models are facing unprecedented challenges. This series, featuring
writers who know Baptist collegiate ministry, focuses on the future of
moderate Baptist collegiate ministry. This month's contributor is R. Kirby
Godsey, President of Mercer University.

"Embodying Healthy Religious Devotion"

By R. Kirby Godsey

College students, like the societies and communities from which they come, are
being bombarded with bad religion. In our time, religion has become a major
social malady and none of the great world religions has been able to avoid
this treacherous demise. It is not uncommon for the college experience to
shine light on the strains of manipulation and even control that have become
so persuasive in religious training. Young minds often decide that no religion
at all is better than the mental and moral control that has been fostered
under the guise of mindless devotion to a certain religious ideology.
The focus of
collegiate ministries should not be either to replicate an empty, vacuous,
irrational religious devotion or to try to compensate for the intellectual
experience in college that is loosing the bonds of religious control by
assuring students that, even in the face of their new intellectual freedom,
they should eschew all doubts and remain faithful to their beliefs.
The real
challenge of collegiate ministry lies not in holding back the shaking of the
foundations but to embrace the storm and to walk alongside students as they
search for more reliable religious moorings. The focus of campus ministry
should not be simply to encourage students to hold onto religion as
sentimental devotion. To the contrary, ministry in the context of the
University experience should enable students to discover that there is no
contradiction between sound religion and intellectual inquiry. Whenever free
inquiry bumps up against the boundaries of religious affirmation, let the
boundaries be moved. The journey of religious devotion cannot be sustained by
blind allegiance to any religious doctrine. Religious devotion, if it is to
endure, must embrace the whole person, including the mind and the spirit. Our
work as college ministers and chaplains must be to help students integrate the
life of faith and the life of inquiry. Believing cannot be sustained at the
expense of thinking and thought does not require the diminution of belief.
College
ministry today can play a critical and constructive role in the whole of the
collegiate experience. The new-found freedom which accompanies going to
college carries both profound opportunities for mental and spiritual growth
and serious hazards to students’ health and wellbeing. The college ministry
needs to live out a healthy religion that is open to inquiry and the search
for truth wherever that search may lead.
At the same
time, college ministry faces the growing challenge of providing support and
counsel for students who are exploring an entirely new array of lifestyle
options that knock on the doors of college students. Helping students come to
terms with responsible choices regarding drugs, alcohol, sex, and the Internet
represents a high mountain to climb for collegiate ministry. Interpreting the
hazards with candor, and helping students engage in responsible decision
making, as well as serving as a resource for students who become caught in the
spiral of self-destructive behavior are crucial dimensions of a college
ministry in today’s world.
The high
calling of college ministry can make enormous contributions to the quality and
character of the undergraduate experience. In order to do so, college
ministers must be bold enough to see their own role in partnership with the
larger learning community. The challenge is not to provide a haven from
inquiry but to embody the kind of religious devotion that respects learning
and inquiry and to build a reservoir of hope and courage for students as they
face, often for the first time, the choices implicit in a life where they must
exercise both freedom and responsibility.

BSB
presents a review of A Pilgrimage of Faith: My Story, by Henlee Hulix
Barnette.

E. Glenn Hinson, Professor Emeritus of Baptist
Theological Seminary in Richmond, Senior Professor of Church History and
Spirituality at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Visiting Professor of Church
History at Lexington Theological Seminary, and Adjunct Professor of Church
History at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, reviews
A Pilgrimage of Faith, published by Mercer University Press, 2004.

Not many nonagenarians will tell their life story with the clarity and
precision with which Henlee Barnette has told his at age ninety-one. Not
many, of course, will have such a story to tell, either. Nor will many be
gifted with the sense of humor which makes this autobiography so engrossing
that once you start reading it, you can hardly put it down.
Many students
of Henlee Barnette will have heard snippets of the story he has included–how
he started to work at Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, North Carolina, at age
thirteen for eighteen cents an hour; how he began high school at age
twenty-two, the same year he became a pastor at Frog Hollow; how he went to
Wake Forest College at age twenty-six; how he took up the challenge of
Clarence Jordan to minister to people in Louisville’s Haymarket area from 1941
to 1945; how two sons took opposite approaches to Vietnam, John serving in the
army and Wayne fleeing to Canada and Sweden; how he caught flak for inviting
Martin Luther King, Jr., to speak at Southern Seminary in 1961; how he met
Nikita Krushchev on a trip to the Soviet Union. Even as a long time
colleague, however, I found much in the Barnette pilgrimage I didn’t know.
Henlee was not the kind of person who went around bragging about his
achievements. He characteristically went about the task of seeking justice
and pursuing peace quietly, without fanfare.
This
autobiography does much more than share with us the story of a remarkable
person who came from the wings to the center of the stage to play a leading
role in a Baptist and an American drama. It also opens to us a larger story,
one about a people called Baptist, and how churches and schools contributed to
the forming of a man of great spiritual depth and integrity who could play his
part with lasting effect. It’s a story about a pastor named Wade James, who,
with only an eighth grade education himself, insisted that Henlee Barnette get
an education. It’s about Wake Forest College and teachers like William L.
Poteat, Olin T. Binkley, and A.C. Reid, who inspired a naturally curious mind
to ask still bigger questions. It’s about The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary and scholars such as John R. Sampey, William O. Carver, W. Hersey
Davis, J.B. Weatherspoon, and, once again, O.T. Binkley, who challenged him to
assume a prophet’s mantle in a culture stonewalled against change in its ways
of thinking and acting. It’s about some ordinary saints in the Haymarket like
Asenath Brewster, missionary extraordinaire, and the Randles family, all
blind, who assisted him in his ministry there. It’s about Walter
Rauschenbusch, on whom Barnette wrote his doctoral dissertation, and Clarence
Jordan and M.L. King, Jr., with whom he linked arms in a fight for civil
rights.
A
Pilgrimage of Faith is an inspiring story, but it has some very sad
parts. Perhaps the most grievous for someone who has been privileged to share
a considerable stretch in Henlee Barnette’s pilgrimage is what has happened to
the people who brought Henlee Barnette to a vital Christian faith, nurtured
him, ordained him, and sustained him in his ministry. Where will prophets
come from in a denomination which has shut down searching? Among his final
petitions as he finished his autobiography was this: “Let me die thinking. I
have always had a hunger to know more. Here we see things ‘through a glass
darkly.’ No one has all this truth.”

The Baptist Heritage Tour includes the Centennial
Congress of the Baptist World Alliance.
It is organized by Dr. Drayton Sanders, Chairman, Baptist Heritage
Council of Georgia.
Dr. Johnny Pierce of Baptists Today and Dr. Walter Shurden of The
Center
for Baptist Studies will accompany the tour. For information
contact
Dr. Drayton
Sanders at 706-226-2349 or at
drayton@optilink.us.

A
series of eleven pamphlets that address negative perceptions held towards
Baptists in popular American culture. These pamphlets are suitable for
individual study, church classes, and academic courses. They are jointly
published by the Baptist History and Heritage Society, The Center for Baptist
Studies of Mercer University, and the Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society.
Editor: Doug Weaver; Associate Editors: Charles W. Deweese & Walter B.
Shurden.